The Model Congress 1st Session Increase Federal Pell Grants to provide equal opportunity to all for a postsecondary school education In the Model Congress February 21, 2008 Sponsored by: Rep. Charlotte Young (IL) Cosponsored by: Rep. ZEIZTER (HI), Rep. ASHMAN (AK), Rep. SOOMRO (NY), Rep. ROBERT (CT), Sen. CONRAD (OR)the YLI Congressional Members A BILL To increase Federal Pell Grants to provide equal opportunity to all for a postsecondary school education
Be it enacted by the Members of the YLI Congress
Of the United States of America in Congress assembled
SECTION 1. TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Chance for America’s Future Bill of 2008”
Sponsor Names: Rep. YOUNG (IL), Rep. ZEIZTER (HI), Rep. ASHMAN (AK), Rep. SOOMRO (NY), Rep. ROBERT (CT), Sen. CONRAD (OR)
SECTION 2. PURPOSES
The purpose is to provide an equal chance for capable and willing students to pursue careers they want without financial boundaries preventing them
Increase the Federal Pell Grants—raise to 400 dollar minimum and 5,100 dollar maximum offered to recipients
College provides opportunities for the future economy—without proper education that lead to jobs the economy will fail recipients
SECTION 3. FINDINGS
400,000 students are capable of going to college each year but can’t afford it
College costs and family income not balanced
Cost of attending a public university has increased by 32%
Cost of attending a private university has increased by 21%
Family income has only gone up by 6%
In 2006 the financial aid budget was cut by 12.5 billion dollars
Bush promised that the maximum Pell Grant would rise to 5,100 dollars by 2011 but has been frozen at 4,050 dollars since the 03-2004 fiscal year
In 2005-06, the maximum Pell grant covered one-third of the yearly cost of higher education at a public four-year institution; twenty years ago, it covered 60% of a student's cost of attendance
Without the federal money, families are receiving loans that have high interest rates putting them more into debt—60% of students receive loans
Student loan debt has increased from 7,633 dollars in 1992-1993 to 17,400 dollars 2003-2004
Pell Grants are only given in cases of extreme need—long process of evaluating how eligible possible recipients are
Those citizens with college education make 1 million dollars more than those with just high school diplomas
SECTION 4. ELIGIBILITY
American citizens
Undergraduates and vocational students pursuing their undergraduate degree
Students must have GED, diploma, or show that they are capable of pursuing a college degree
Undergraduates must be attending a postsecondary school that accepts Federal Pell Grants
Students must fill out a FAFSA form to see how much money they need based on:
Financial status of family (EFC)
Number of members in family
How many more students in family are planning on going to college
How long the student is planning on studying
The cost of attending the college
SECTION 5. TERMS AND BENEFITS OF SERVICE.
Raise taxes to provide the proper amount of money for the Pell Grants
Raise the maximum Pell Grant offered to be 5,011 dollars and keep minimum Pell Grant at 400 dollars
The Pell Grant will help all undergraduates until graduation with the buying of text books, residence etc
The college will either credit the grant to the student’s college account or pay the student directly through a check
Students are paid once per term
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
What is your issue all about in general terms?
More money to teachers—leads to better education
Better teaching facilities—buildings, classrooms, more space
More supplies—textbooks, pencils
FINAL GOAL: higher education and competitiveness in the American public
Would lead to less crime
Would lead to more jobs—helping economy
Brighter students means furthering the science discoveries—stem cell, cancer etc
Everyone should have an access to a college education
College education—essential
What’s the history of your issue? When did this issue first surface? What current events or developments have affected your issue?
History of Department of Education
Department of Education created in 1980 (1)
71.5 billion dollar budget focused around: (1)
Distributing financial aid to students
Collecting information on American schools and assessing the data
Getting national attention for key issues involving education
Allowing equal education to all and ensuring no racism occurs
Involves many councils (1)
Student college loans history
Student loans often cause students debt after many years
Federal Student Aid is available to students at participating schools and who have all the financial qualities of someone who needs financial assistance (9)
Can come in the forms of Grants, Loans, or work study programs (9)
Different types of loans: (9)
FFEL loan: private lenders provide federally guaranteed funds
Direct loan: eligible students get money from the federal government at participating schools
With Federal Perkins Loans: given to students who demonstrate the most needs at participating schools (9)
Different types of grants: (9)
Federal Pell Grants: designed for low income or middle class undergraduates
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant: Federal student aid is provided for students gives funds to schools who eventually give grants to students
Academic Competitiveness Grant: for full time undergraduate students—the amount that is given goes up every year
SMART grant: gives up to 4,000 dollars to 3rd or 4th year students who are studying math, science, technology, engineering or foreign language that will help with national security
The Department of Education gives 80 billion dollars to students in forms of grant, loans and work study programs (1)
They have to take a test to see how eligible they are
For different loans there are “grace periods” that either give you 6 months of 9 months to repay your loan back to the government (1)
You have a choice of repaying your loan if you have an FFEL loan or a direct loan (1)
With Federal Perkins Loans you have to pay back in 10 years (1)
If there is difficulty paying back your loan you may qualify for a forbearance, deferment or another form of payment release (1)
Deferment
Suspension of payments in times of economic hardship or reenrolling in school (1)
Military Service Deferment
In September 2007, if you are called into the military to fight then your loans are temporarily deferred (1)
Forbarance
Allows a temporary suspension of money owed due to economic hardship or financial hardships (1)
Unlike deferment, includes interest (1)
Lasts up to three years (1)
Current Events
Bush made the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002
NCLB reauthorized in 2007
No Child Left Behind Requirements (2)
Qualified teachers
Had state’s certification
Has a bachelor’s degree
Has subject matter expertise
New teachers who are qualified
Must take a subject test and demonstrate basic skills for elementary education
Must have a good knowledge of subject they are teaching by either getting their masters, or taking a subject test
Student testing
Progress of public school students will be graded in math and reading in grade 3-8 at the end of each school year
If public schools want federal funds, they must require testing
Scientifically based research
Has scientific research conducted to prove results of NCLB
Public school choice
Students who feel that their school is unqualified should have a choice to go to a better school
Sept. 7, 2007—bill passed to help aid college students with college tuitions (5)
Pell Grant—grant given to 5 million students to help with college—is upped by 490 dollars and will eventually become 1,090 in the next 5 years
Used to be only 4,310 dollars given to students, eventually it will becoming 5,400 dollars
The money that is given to the students aren’t given loans, but rather pay the government back based on their income
Still paying back money, but will not make you go broke
HERA—signed by George Bush in February 8, 2006 that cut the federal costs of education—taking 12 billion dollars away from student loans (6)
Where do the two major political parties tend to stand on your issue?
Republican (3)
Wants to improve education for students who are behind
Focus on reading for students who are below their estimated reading level
Making mathematics and science more dominant—especially to those who are below average
Furthering the achievements made in accelerated programs
Democrats (4)
Wants to expand educational opportunity for hopeful college students
Wants to make a college tuition tax that is deductible
Wants to expand Pell interest rates
Cut student loan interests
Will all eventually improve education
What current legislation is under consideration in Congress on your issue? Refer to specific bills by name. What is the bill title? Who sponsored it? What is the bill’s purpose?
College Opportunity Act 2007 (7)
Goal: to make college more affordable through increased federal Pell grants and providing more affordable student loans
Introduced in the Senate and Sponsored by: Senator Harry Reid—NV
Referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and pension
College student relief Act 2007 (8)
Goal: wants to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965—cut the interest rates of loans given to FFEL and DL students
Sponsored: Representative George Miller—CA
Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (9)
Cuts 12.7 billion aid to students in federal grants
Raises interest rates6.8% to 8.5%
Background on College Education and Pell Grants
Cost of college has increased 32 percent-public college
Raised 21 percent for private college
Family income has increased only by 6 percent
Pell grants are failing—only giving 30% instead of 51% now
College costs at least 26,000 dollars per year
Without federal help, the students have to look to loans from schools –60% of students
Students are in debt with the government by 19,000 dollars
400,000 students each year are capable to go to college but they don’t
Interest rates rose by 7%
College is important
Allowing more people to get employed
Get higher earnings
Getting into the middle class
People with college education get more than 1 million dollars more than those with high school degrees
Pell grants are only given in cases of extreme need
Pell grants vary from year to year depending on the amount of money Congress places the budget
fRepresentative Young- (Il-D)
Representative Young
The Future America Begins Today
The Model Congress
1st Session
Increase Federal Pell Grants to provide equal opportunity to all for a postsecondary school education
In the Model Congress
February 21, 2008
Sponsored by: Rep. Charlotte Young (IL)
Cosponsored by: Rep. ZEIZTER (HI), Rep. ASHMAN (AK), Rep. SOOMRO (NY), Rep. ROBERT (CT), Sen. CONRAD (OR)the YLI Congressional Members
A BILL
To increase Federal Pell Grants to provide equal opportunity to all for a postsecondary school education
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Work Cited:
U.S. Department of Education. 15 February 2008. <http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml>. (1)
“No Child Left Behind Act”. Wikipedia. 15 February 2008. 15 February 2008.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind>.(2)
GOP.com. 2003. 15 February 2008. <http://education.gop.com/GroupPage.aspx?>. (3)
“Economic Prosperity and Educational Excellence”. The Democratic Party. 2008. 15 February 2008.
<http://www.democrats.org/a/national/economic_growth/>. (4)
“Biggest Victory for Student Aid in more than a Decade”. Rock the Vote: MTV. 7 September 2007. 15 February 2008. <http://www.blog.rockthevote.com/labels/student%20loans.html>. (5)
“The Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005: HERA”. Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Program
(TG). 2008. 15 February 2008. <http://www.tgslc.org/hea/hera.cfm>. (6)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110h9VWDq:: (7)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:3:./temp/~c110jN6VzT:: (8)
“Office of Federal Student Aid”. Wikipedia. 2008. 15 February 2008.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Federal_Student_Aid>. (9)
Very Cool!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/opinion/15brooks.html?hp